MEDIA CENTRE (AMD HTPC dual core computer) for your TV!

This auction is for a media centre PC (also known as home theatre PC/HTPC) designed especially for use in the living room. It can plug into your TV and/or Hi-Fi, and enables you to do everything you usually would using a PC but from your television, controlled by a remote. This can compliment your existing home entertainment system, or replace many of the seperate parts! This one unit is a complete solution and features digital and analogue TV, radio, internet, DVD, lets you watch and listen to downloaded movies and music, plus lots more!

This media centre PC uses standard components and so can be used with a monitor, keyboard and mouse if you do not want to plug it into your TV.

MUSIC, FILM & TELEVISION:
Record, watch, pause, rewind Digital TV! This machine acts as both a Freeview+ box and a personal video recorder (PVR). Unlike cheaper components, this computer contains a TV card that is specially designed to perform hardware encoding - i.e. it will encode/decode video itself and take the strain away from the CPU, which minimises slowdowns and offers a smoother and faster experience.And if you can't get Digital in your area, the tuner will also pick up terrestrial analogue TV!

The TV card has a built in FM radio, or you can listen to your favourite stations via Freeview or the Internet.

You can also use the built-in DVD drive to watch films. There is a spare bay in the case for if you should ever like to add a second drive such as blu-ray.

Stream complete TV shows from Blinkbox directly to your TV without needing to sit squashed-up in front of a computer monitor.

MEDIA JUKEBOX: Play video's and music stored on this computer, or wirelessly connect to other computers and play media stored on other Windows PC's;

PLUG IT INTO YOUR CRT/LCD/LED/PLASMA TELEVISION: Unlike other HTPC's, this has an HDMI socket for connection to newer LCD/LED/Plasma televisions, plus a yellow RCA/Composite and S-Video socket for connection to older CRT televisions that have SCART or composite inputs.

WIRELESS OR WIRED INTERNET: Wirelessly browse the web and check your emails;

REMOTE CONTROLLED: The computer comes with a remote so you can control it from the comfort of your armchair;

TWO HARD DRIVES: One for Windows, one for your media and recorded TV.

MEDIA CASE: The components reside within a cleverly designed case. It is stylised to fit with your other equipment, but unlike other media centre cases can also accept normal size PCI cards or ATX motherboards if ever you would like to upgrade it.

MICROSOFT SOFTWARE: The computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate (Release Candidate). I have pre-installed the computer with the release candidate to keep costs as low as possible. A release candidate is demo/beta software and will function until 01/06/2010 when you will need to install a new copy of Windows. If you would like to purchase an upgrade to a different version of Windows 7 then please contact me in advance for costs;

This machine was only recently assembled as a customised machine, especially for use as a media centre and you now now have the opportunity of purchasing this for yourself. The computer was built by a trained professional and there are no plans to repeat this auction, so get bidding if you are interested in this item as this will be your only opportunity. Unlike other media centre PC's, this uses high quality components from well known manufacturers. I've seen plenty of HTPC's on eBay using unbranded components which do not work well - this is not the case here.

This computer is designed to work with your existing television and contains HDMI, RCA (composite, can connect to scart), S-Video, VGA and DVI connections. If using HDMI on a high definition TV, this machine is capable of outputting 1080p. Please note, to keep costs down on this auction no HDMI cable is included but there are plenty available on eBay and you may well have some spare. I have included the standard RCA/composite cables.

What's Included:

• HTPC Media Centre Computer
• Remote control + receiver;
• Power cable;
• FM Aerial;
• LAN cable;
• RCA/Composite Video cable + Audio cable;
• Removable feet to attach to the bottom of the HTPC;
• Drive rails for adding an additional DVD or Blu-ray drive;

What's not Included

• Wireless keyboard and mouse - these can be purchased as upgrades, please ask for more information.
• Windows setup disc. This computer has Windows 7RC 64 bit pre-installed.

Important things to note:

1. There is a very light scratch on one side of the case which happened whilst the device was being assembled.
2. Please see my notes regarding Windows 7 RC above.

Specification:

• Specially designed OPERA case, made for quiet operation and styled to go with your existing hi-fi equipment;
• High quality ASUS M2A-VM HDMI motherboard;
• AMD Athlon X2 3800+ 64 bit dual core processing power from AMD offering suitable correct power consumption and performance for a media centre;
• 2GB RAM from Crucial;
• Hauppauge WinTV 1300 TV for Freeview/Analogue TV/FM. Built in hardware encoding for recording;
• SATA DVD optical drive;
• 2 x Hard drives; An 80GB drive with Windows installed, a 120GB drive for your recorded TV and media;
• Wireless network;
• Windows 7 Ultimate RC1 (has all the features of the latest version of Windows but needs to be replaced after 01/06/2010). Please ask if you are unsure of what this means.
• Spare bay for adding a second optical drive.